Sunday, September 18, 2016

yout turn #4

take this famous illustration by g. doré entitled the neophyte. the young, next to the decrepit, there's so much here to mine!

what's on your mind?

lots to talk about: doré, romanticism again, early photography and its developments, daguerreotype, pictorialism, freaks, circus, 19th century typefaces, newspapers and its development, magazines and its development, political satire.

17 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The discussion I found most interesting from last weeks lecture was the discussion on political satire and how it was introduced to public consumption. Even today, publication – such as The Daily Mail – feeds on and conveys the news in a satirical form. Our presidential candidate, Donald Trump, is like the modern day King Louis-Phillippe. I believe that someone like Daumier would have enjoyed critiquing this presidential candidate based on all of the xenophobic, narcissistic, racist, and misogynistic comments he’s made during debates and interviews. I’m not saying I’m shallow, but I had a good laugh at the fact that Daumier studied the shape of a pear to best depict the king’s head. Even after looking further at Daumier’s online registry (the web link you provided) one can see in his photos that he is fascinated with exploiting one’s flaws or physical appearance.-Bryan Vargas

I thought that the most interesting point we talked about last week was photography and how it has developed. First we saw a picture of Edgar Allan Poe, which was made of mercury and silver and it did not allow reproduction. Then came an early Kodak camera, which was recommended for female cyclists (even though it would be very hard to take a picture with that camera while riding a bike). Then women started taking pictures and getting into the field, so the first women photographers were introduced, and so forth. I think that this topic is very interesting because nowadays we take photography for granted. We take pictures of everything in just a second and every phone has a camera of great quality. The evolution of photography has made us so used to it because it is very accessible to everyone. It is amazing to go back and see how everything started and how simple it was but at the same time so amusing. I really like to learn how things got created because nowadays technology is so advanced that we often forget to think about that and take it for granted, and sometimes even expect more. -Anat Sterental

Last class I found Doré to be the most interesting topic. Mostly because I did not know he illustrated the Inferno and countless other books. I enjoy romanticism art, literature, and design but I particularly enjoy printmaking. In his works, Doré is a master of engraving and woodcuts. They are truly inspiring and evoke a feeling of curiosity and wonder. Another topic that fascinated me was the freaks and the circus. I actually visited a “Freak” circus when I was younger. They were a traveling circus from Spain called “Circus of Horror”. The performers were contortionists, fire breathers, and people in special effects makeup. They were just people with gifts who put on a show to entertain the public. I found the site “Thehumanmarvels.com” to be a good name instead of freaks. The word freak has such a negative connotation, people should see these performers as people who were born different and express their differences as a means to survive. -Ana Gonzalez

The idea of freaks was something that I was very interested in since the class before the last. The fascination that people, who are the public, have with things which are different and out of the norm gave way to a whole enterprise of people designing certain anomalies to become a spectacle. This careful design by PT Barnum to create these “freaks” and their advertisement took the same thought process as did any other thing that requires design. He saw a way to communicate the product to what appeals to the public, seeing the interest that the public had and in a way “designing” the freaks by exaggerating or creating a story or “facts” that would entice people to see more. This is something that continues to this day, with these “freak shows” being seen in circuses and fairs, such as Santa’s Enchanted Forest, where I remember being told that I could see the world’s smallest woman and the world’s smallest horse. Martina Sandoval

The most interesting concept of last class to me was how books became standard in their printing and started to be used to spread large amounts of knowledge to more people. The fact that books allowed a person to obtain an education without attending a university or classroom, shows how this movement allowed our society to prosper in an educational and cultural sense. With this standardization, a piece that caught my eye was “The Grammar of Ornament”, this book not only educated, but exposed new information to people, from designs of all around the world. It also seems to show the evolution of interests, from the local happening and news, to a global view point and interest. Helping to expand their knowledge and experience different viewpoints from cultures and communities around them. This book also allows for a more extensive vocabulary to be formed by designers and artists, giving them a diverse collection of reference to choose from for their work, all in one book, from all around the world. Helpful knowledge at one’s fingertips.

The fascinating thing about last week's class was the discussion about charts and how information can be displayed on an x/y axis. One of the charts, the history of civilizations depicting the rise and fall of every major western civilization. The chart is called a battleship curve chart, that is used by archaeologists to chart the appearance of certain types of artifacts in the archaeological record and to record their appearance, rise, and eventual fall. Battleship curves were first used in archaeology during the later half of the 20th century, when two archaeologist were recording grave stones in new england, and discovered the charting of the headstones created this chart. The fascinating part is the chart used in class was from 1805, 150 years before, and archaeology did not discover the charts and it’s usefulness until the 1970s.Dante Petersen

From this past class, the most interesting topic in my mind is the idea of peoples’ obsession with the freak. Starting with the ideas in the Neuremberg chronicles, people have been drawn to the unknown and exotic. At that point these creatures were just hand drawn representations of someone’s thought. It was by their own hand that the creatures were created. In the mid-nineteenth century, the emergence of freak shows pulled these figments off the page and into reality. Be it the true abnormal humans or the major hoax, crowds were drawn in to see. I find it amusing that the public was so enthralled and entertained by the “fringe of normality” that it seemed to become an art form in itself to construct freaks that were freakier than what organically developed. The more unrealistic the character became, I’m sure, the greater the crowd they drew. -Tami Lake

It is intriguing to see that as the graphic design evolves, the images have became a reflection of the social and political situations during some particular period of time. Since then the image/art does not only represent the taste of the church and the court, either does it serve as the political propaganda alone, it also shows the trends among people. The design of those "Penny Dreadful" newspapers is not as exquisite and elegant as other strictly artistic design; however, the large publication of Penny Newspaper emphasizes the rise of working class read and the type of stories that were popular among people. Meanwhile it also rises the question that what kind of work can be called art and who can define what is art and what is not. Further, La Caricature, the political satire illustrated a clear picture of political corruption. What is more fascinating is that the artist's attitude toward the king and the corrupted, probably as angry and digested as Daumier was, what he showed was light-hearted humor and mock. The different faces of the villains even stereotypes the corrupted in a way.

What interested me the most about last class were the freaks. I found it very surprising that those freaks became so popular and the they even became a trend of fashion. I thought that the people saw them as a separate group but then in a negative way., that they didn't want to have those people in their societies. But that was probably many years ago, when religion was a lot more important. I can't really imagine that people even went to circuses to watch these freaks. But I do understand why those people liked to see freaks. It is just different, something you don't see everyday, something new. Ofcourse that draws peoples attention. I went to the website thehumanmarvels.com because I was curious of what would be there to see, it grabbed my attention. I think the people then had the same curiosity in those times.What I also liked about last class was the photography as art/painting. I really liked to see the pictures. I think they are very beautiful.

I thought that one of the most interesting topics from last class was about the development of charts to represent data. I think this is particularly interesting because at this period in the 18th century, the Enlightenment thinkers were beginning to express their ideas and the visualization of data is such a powerful tool to present conclusions. To see data points as a curve to see distinct trends and patterns in numbers must have allowed these thinkers to present their ideas to a wider audience and make these facts more relatable. I also find it interesting to see the different ways that these early chart makers decided to present their data and how these forms have remained until today. For example the pie chart, bar chart, and curved function still are used today. -- Will Uelk

What impressed me from last class is the development of 19th century typefaces. It is amazing that the artists design typefaces from specific cultural and pictorial styles. Usually the typefaces should be simple and legible, for the reason that letters are being considered as a tool for communication and for delivering information. However, adding patterns and textures that including cultural features and meanings could also be a way to convey information. No matter the typeface is complicated or simple, it is communicating the feature of a specific culture and it’s unique connotation to the world. I am a minimalist myself, but I am deeply being touched by the maximalistic typefaces showed in last class. I appreciated the philosophy of “less is more”. Nevertheless, the maximalistic typefaces inspire me that “more is more” could also be considered as a good philosophy.

Among the many interesting topics class went over last time, the one that caught my attention the most was people’s obsession with the Freaks. It is interesting how people wanted to not only “see” the freaks but also wanted to be “acquainted” with them. I am taking another art history course on Photography. It was interesting to see how the history of photography and the history of graphic design overlap. I was curious about how the invention of photography influenced the world of graphic design. If it had any negative/ positive impact on it. I wanted to learn about why dore was so important in his era in terms of graphic design. If he represented his time, and if he did, how is it shown in his works. I also wanted to learn about what are the characteristic of 19th century typefaces and newspapers and how they are different from that of other eras. -MinA Jang

Last week in class we discussed the idea of punk being the new romanticism. One student asked a good question concerning how exactly did the hero concept of romanticism fit into the punk ideology. This was very compelling to me. Even though it is a different kind of hero than that of the romantic era, I think that punks do a have a hero aspect. The concept shifted from being their own heroes in the Romantic period to being a specific cause or even the world in general's heroes. When they believe in a cause such as environmentalism, for instance, that could make them the Earth's heroes. Romantics of old look like the small subset of the population that ascribe to a different outlook than the rest. I could also think of them as the counterculture hippies of old. -Agnes Archibong

One thing that resonates with me from last lecture was that of tattoo practices. To see how it has evolved in society and how it can be represented as graphic design... but of the human skin. This further demonstrates how graphic design is all around us. Just like vandalism and how it is considered a "delinquent" ac, having tattoos at one point in our society also signified the act of being rebellious. Even so, older generations today still consider this to be true, where newer generations or "my generation" use tattooing as a form of expression. With this new image of "Viva da Freaks", one is exposed to how the practice of tattooing is graphic design; a representation of art and creativity rather than a predisposition of people who are deemed abnormal or even rebellious.

I think the most interesting part from last class was the point of “freaks”. Honestly, I thought those photos are fake when I first saw them because the figures don't look like human being. They look more like the characters from "American Horror Story". I was shocked by their strangeness and could not even look at them. I did not understand that why people were crazy about them and treated them as treasures. Then I realized that people always curious about freaks, ghost and monsters, no matter where they from and what age. People desire legend and supernatural and admire their power. In ancient China, someone wrote a book of monsters around the world. The book is called "Shan Hai Jing" and it’s all about the fairy stories, monsters and witchcraft. The writer specifically introduced what the monsters look like, where they live and how to find them. Someone even draw a fabulous map for this book later on. I also like the romanticism photography. I like the misty and sad atmosphere and I hope we can talk more about those photographs.

Even though newspapers can be easily located, they are no longer the only way that people get their news. When newspapers were first developed, it took long periods of time for them to be delivered to people. At one point in time, newspapers were the only source that people could get their news from. Some newspapers were aimed at people that shared the same interests, while others were aimed at people that lived within a given area. Unlike in the past, today many people get their news from their cell phones. Cell phones allow people all over the world to access news as soon as it is released. This enables the people of today to be better informed than the people of the past. In today’s world, many people choose not to get their news from newspapers, because they want to be eco-friendly. All in all, the speed that news travels has greatly increased.

What I found the most interesting part in last lecture was the design of the freak. It is unbelievable that there were so many freak people existed around mid-19th century. And that this kind of “freak shows” finally reached maturity both in England and the US. “Freak shows” became popular entertainment in that period reflects people who in the mid-19th century look for excitement and new experience from these unusual people. Same situation in nowadays society, I think we will more focus on helping to these people, no laughing and no trick. If I didn’t see these photos (not painting or Photoshop) in the lecture, I wouldn’t believe a woman who has four-legged. In addition, I strongly agree with Professor’s opinion, “"freak" is a "design" for the masses. Part entertainment, part exotic, part wondrous, at the fringes of admissible and the society of the normal. As instrumentalized as they were, these creatures were admired, a social phenomenon which played in both directions.”